Sunday, September 6, 2015

Three quick reviews, and a book I didn't finish

I have fallen behind in writing (because I've been reading), so I'm posting these quick reviewlets.

Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson

I bought a copy of this off the library sale shelves because it is a classic, the Puffin paperback was only $1, and it would fill a year in my Mid-Century of Books (1886).  I thought I had read this before, and the opening was familiar enough.  But when I started this however many years ago, I must have given up on it pretty quickly.  I had a clear memory of David climbing up the stair-tower to fetch the chest of papers (in the fourth chapter, "I Run a Great Danger in the House of Shaws").  But I must have read no further, because I had no memory of the kidnapping of the title, and I know that I never met Alan Breck - I couldn't have forgotten him.  This turned out to be the third book I've read this summer that involves traveling around the Hebrides and the Western Isles by boat (the other two being Alastair Dunnett's The Canoe Boys and Dorothy Dunnett's Dolly and the Singing Bird).  In fact, my atlas was still open to the right pages, to track the Covenant's voyage.  And I only had to turn the page to follow David and Alan Breck in their flight across the Highlands.  I was a little surprised at the abrupt end of the story, which felt very unsatisfying.  I was happy to find there is a sequel, Catriona, but I'm wondering if it's worth reading?


Airs Above the Ground, by Mary Stewart

I don't like circuses, or stories about circuses, so I was a little hesitant to read this book.  But I liked the narrator, Vanessa, from the first page.  I was a little concerned about her setting off on a trip to Vienna with her friend's son, seventeen-year-old Timothy Lacy.  It didn't feel quite right - he was either too old or too young for that.  But he is another of the neglected children that often end up in the heroines' care, in Mary Stewart's books.  Vanessa is on her way to Vienna to look for her husband, who is supposed to be on a business trip to Stockholm, but apparently isn't.  Timothy is going to see his father, and also the famous Lipizzaner stallions.  They end up instead in eastern Austria, with a small traveling circus.  But the story is more about the horses than the circus itself, and the recent death of their keeper in a fire.  Vanessa is a vet, as it turns out, with a lot experience working with horses.  I think it's a shame she had to give up working when she married, though she does keep her hand in with volunteer work.  I enjoyed this book a lot, though I found the hero a bit too autocratic for my tastes.  And as Hayley recently mentioned, it's nice to read a mystery without a lot of gore or a high body count.


Beggars on Horseback, E.O. Somerville & Martin Ross

This, the third of Somerville and Ross's travel accounts that I have read, is subtitled "A Ride Through Wales in 1894."  I thought I had read somewhere that this, like In the Vine Country and Through Connemara in a Governess Cart, was originally published as a serial in The Ladies' Pictorial.  I can't find that reference now.   If not, maybe that explains why it feels so different from the other two.  For one thing, the narrator isn't traveling with "my second cousin."  Her companion is called Miss O'Flannigan.  We never learn her first name, or the narrator's.  But more importantly, the two don't seem to enjoy their trip at all.  They seem to dislike Wales and the Welsh.  Granted, the weather was terrible, often pouring rain, and their horses were even worse than the jennet drawing the governess cart.  But there was none of the sense of discovery, the funny situations, the back-and-forth between the travelers.  And there wasn't even that much about Wales itself.  The edition I read is a modern reprint by The Long Riders' Guild Press (I just saw a first edition of this for sale at €395).  Someone made the unfortunate editorial decision to put their website URL at the bottom of every single page, which I found distracting and then annoying.  The book also includes seven pages listing the other titles they have published.  Some do sound interesting, such as Lady Florence Dixie's Riding Across Patagonia:
When asked in 1879 why she wanted to travel to such an outlandish place as Patagonia, the author replied without hesitation that she was taking to the saddle in order to flee from the strict confines of polite Victorian society.  This is the story of how the aristocrat successfully traded the perils of a London parlor for the wind-borne freedom of a wild Patagonian bronco.

The book I did not finish is The Rosary, by Florence L. Barclay.  I looked for a copy of this after reading that it was a best-seller at its publication in 1910 (hoping to fill another year in my Mid-Century).  There will be spoilers to follow.  The story starts off well, with a dowager Duchess who has lost her cranky husband and discovered how happy she can be as a widow.  She gives lively house-parties in her stately home, which she characterizes as "freak parties," "mere people parties," and "best parties."  One of the guests at her current "best party" is her niece, the Hon. Jane Champion.  A big red flag went up when I met Jane:
[She] was now in her thirtieth year. She had once been described, by one who saw below the surface, as a perfectly beautiful woman in an absolutely plain shell; and no man had as yet looked beneath the shell, and seen the woman in her perfection.  She would have made earth heaven for a blind lover who, not having eyes for the plainness of her face or the massiveness of her figure, might have drawn nearer, and apprehended the wonder of her as a woman. . .But as yet, no blind man with far-seeing vision had come her way...
I was seized with foreboding.  I recently read a book, Ada Cambridge's Fidelis, where a man chose to fall in love with a blind woman, because she wouldn't mind his ugly exterior.  I was not prepared to read another story where Love was literally blind, nor one where a physical handicap was exploited even for love.  So I started skipping ahead.  Gareth Dalmain, an artist and society painter, falls in love with Jane after he hears her sing, which reveals to him her subcutaneous beauty.  But Jane refuses his proposal, because she is three years older than he is, but even more because he is an artist, and he shouldn't have to look at her across the table every day.  She goes off to travel the world, to forget him.  Three years later, she learns that he was shot in a hunting accident and is now blind.  So she goes home and nurses him, under a false name.  Eventually all is revealed and forgiven, and they get married.  So points to the author for making Gareth love her as she is (not just plain, but older and plus-sized), and points for letting Jane finally accept that love, even if it's only because he's blind.  Gareth loves Jane for who she is.  Maybe it's too much to expect from a 1910 novel that she could love herself too. I feel that I got more than enough of this story skimming through it, and I'm sending it off to the library sale.

17 comments:

  1. Sometimes it's just more fun reading than writing, and I'm glad you found some winners. Haven't heard of that Mary Stewart title before... must not be one of her more popular books?

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  2. Yes, two out of four to keep isn't bad - and even better, it's four off the TBR shelves.

    I've seen a couple of people mention that Airs Above the Ground is one of their favorites. I knew very little about her suspense novels, even the titles, before I learned about them from fellow bloggers.

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  3. I think I only have four of Mary Stewart's suspense novels left to read, and Airs Above the Ground is one of them. I'm glad you enjoyed it! I started to read Kidnapped a few years ago but didn't get very far with it, though I do remember loving the first few chapters. You've made me think that maybe I should try it again.

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    1. Helen, I still have This Rough Magic and The Gabriel Hounds - as well as the one set in the Spanish convent, which I don't plan to read!

      It seems we had the same reaction to Kidnapped, at first!

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  4. How are you liking Dunnett's mysteries? I don't think I've ever read a book blogger's review of one. I'll be ending her historical books soon (Gemini and King Hereafter are waiting for a long winter night) and was considering her others.

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    1. Alex, I've enjoyed them - they're different in a lot of ways from the historicals (the modern settings of course), but they're definitely Dunnett. And I can see connections between Lymond and Johnson. I've reviewed a couple, (Dolly &) the Bird of Paradise and the Doctor Bird - if you click on Dunnett in the links section.

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  5. I think that Catriona is definitely worth reading. It was the very first classic which I bought when I was about 10, sheer vanity as the title is my name, then of course I realised I had to read Kidnapped first.
    I've never been keen on circuses either which is probably why I've never read that Mary Stewart book, but I might give it a go now.

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    1. I thought you might have read Catriona, though I wasn't thinking of the names! I will look for a copy.

      I realized later that even the title of the Stewart book isn't about the circus, but about the Lipizzaner horses.

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  6. I do like books about circuses, but I have found that they are often extremely sad. It seems that circuses were, um, often not great. ALAS. So I'll probably read the Mary Stewart book even if it isn't SO much about circuses.

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    1. Ack, damn, sorry, that was me! I commented with the wrong username!

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    2. I might not have realized it was you :)

      Yes, I've read about the close bonds among circus folk - but also about the poor treatment of people and animals. I particularly hate to read about the big cats and the elephants. So I was relieved this story didn't spend much time at the circus.

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  7. I've skipped to the ending of books before...life is too short to slog through pages and pages of a book you're not enjoying. I've never managed to read Kidnapped, but I did like Airs Above the Ground. But then, Mary Stewart is good even on a bad day.

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    1. I do find myself doing this more, Lark. There seems to be a sort of a tipping point in the book, where I start to lose interest, so I skip ahead to see if the story gets better or if it's worth continuing.

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  8. I am all for ditching a book if it isn't suiting you! I will leave a book if I don't like it and I'll also leave a book if it's just not right for me at the time and come back to it in a few months or years. Marking something DNF is almost a pleasure for me, because it's a refusal to be burdened by the expectation to finish every book I start!

    Speaking of circus books, I recently ditched The Book of Speculation. It was kind of fascinating but in a dark, occult way and I just couldn't handle it.

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    1. Hi, Mia - thanks for stopping by! I see you've been writing about the freedom to not finish books on your own blog. I used to feel more like I had to finish books, once I started them. I've gotten a lot better that. I sometimes put a book back as well, if it feels like it's not the right time or I'm not in the right mood for it - a friend & I call that letting a book ripen some more.

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  9. "the plainness of her face or the massiveness of her figure". Nice one... Ouch. Still, you continue to do us a public service by finding these before we do! ;-)

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    1. I expected much better things from this book :) The Dowager was such a great character, at the start.

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Thank you for taking the time to read, and to comment. I always enjoy hearing different points of view about the books I am reading, even if we disagree!